There’s always been good money to be made in serving up sizzling steaks to hungry folks in West Texas, and San Angelo has most definitely been home to some famous steakhouses — a few of which are still going.
The story of West Texas steakhouses may be most vividly told in the life story of John Zentner, who was born to German immigrants just before the turn of the century in Falls County, near Westphalia.
According to an interview with the Standard-Times in October1979, Zentner’s parents traveled with “9 or 10 wagons” loaded with settlers moving to the Rowena area, where they found land for sale at $3.75 per acre.
After trying his hand at farming, John’s father went on to open a grocery store and saloon, where John learned to cook hamburgers on the grill.
Barely 18 years old, John found himself stationed with the Army at Fort Sam Houston and Camp Stanley, where he worked as a cook for the Cavalry’s officer-training school as World War I raged in Europe.
After the Army, Zentner traveled to Portland, Oregon, where he worked for a time butchering buffalo. He moved home because “there were weeks when I didn’t see the sun.”
When he got back to Texas, his business was buying cattle “on the hoof” and transporting them to meat markets in Fort Worth, in addition to butchering on ranches around Rowena.
His daughter Betty recalled him saying of that time, “There wasn’t a tree in Runnels County we didn’t butcher under,” as cattle were being field dressed before being shipped to market in many areas by the mid-to-late 1920s.
Zentner made his initial foray into the restaurant business in the late 1930s, according to that article, but after the war broke out, he sold the tavern in Seagraves and moved back home.
After World War II, Zentner opened restaurants in the area, sold them, then opened more restaurants.
His first well-known venture was the Lowake Inn in Concho County, where according to Zentner, folks came a long way because he sold the only beer between San Angelo and Fort Worth, and he had good barbecue and hamburgers to go with it.
“Sometimes, when it rained, customers couldn’t drive their cars for the mud, and would have to spend the night,” he recalled.
According to the article, Zentner sold the Lowake Inn one year after opening, only to buy it back two years later, enlarge it,then sell it again to go into ranching.
But once you get the restaurant business in your blood, it keeps calling you back.
Zentner had two brothers, Tony and Joe, and between them, they opened several establishments during the 1950s and '60s, including the Lowake Steak House, a mile down the road from the Lowake Inn; Zentner’s Fine Foods on Avenue K; and a Zentner’s on North Chadbourne Street.
There followed a steakhouse between Ballinger and Rowena, and another steakhouse in Rowena next to a liquor store, one in Del Rio and then another in Buffalo Gap.
Business was good, and John was always working to support the enterprises through the years, before going on to encourage the next generation of Zentners.
Tony and Joe opened the Zentner’s Steakhouse on Sherwood Way in 1954, and the restaurant was subsequently operated by Tony’s daughter, Karen Zentner Gandy after her parents retired in 1971.
In 1975, John’s daughterBettyopened Zentner’s Daughter’s Steakhouse on Knickerbocker Road, and according to an interview with the family five years later, their patriarch was still going at age 80, doing all the meat buying for the San Angelo steakhouses, which were using more than 100 head of beef each week.
John’s daughter Genevaopened Zentner’s Centennial Steak House that year on College Hills Boulevard.
John Zentner died in February1994, and is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Rownea.
His daughterBettystill owns and operates Zentner’s Daughter Steakhouse with her husband Bernay Sheffield at 1901 Knickerbocker Road, and Betty was among the first women named to the Texas Restaurant Association’s Hall of Honor in 2009.
A few other well-known restaurateurs in the area got their start from John Zentner.
Margaret Heinen started working for him as a cleaning woman in 1963, according to a Standard-Times article from 1986, and she said he taught her the business from the bottom up.
“You have to go from the bottom up,” she said. “I had to go slowly, I had to work for it.”
Heinen said she jumped at the chance to operate the restaurant when Zentner offered to lease it to her, and by 1967, she owned Western Sky Steak House, which has been popular for decades,at 2024 S. Chadbourne St.
Heinen was born in Germany and worked as a nurse in Belgium during WWII. After the war, her uncle who lived inOlfenurged her to move to America, where she arrived in 1960. Her uncle was friends with John Zentner, and within two yearsshe was working for him.
Henry Hogeda also worked for Zentner in Rowena before opening his first restaurant in San Angelo in 1973. Hogeda went on to open several of the most successful Mexican food establishments in San Angelo and Abilene — including the Original Henry's Diner,3015 Sherwood Way —and it’s no surprise you could always get a good steak at his places.
Western Sky Steak House is still going strong, and it recently underwent extensive remodeling under owners Yolanda and Stephen Franco.
Steve’s Ranch House
Another steakhouse pioneer of San Angelo was born to a Greek Christian family in Asia Minor, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1906.
According to his obituary, Steve Manitzas narrowly escaped death at the outbreak of World War I, when a renegade magistrate ordered the extermination of the Greeks in his village.
The family managed to make its way to Constantinople, where they spent the duration of the war, and in 1920they immigrated to America and settled in DeRidder, Louisiana.
In 1925, Steve moved to San Angelo with his mother and two of his brothers, Nick and George, and the three brothers opened the “? Bros. Café” soon after.
Stevebecame an American citizen in 1929, returned to Greece to meet his bride-to-be, and came back to help establish the Greek church in town.
In August 1941, he opened Steve's Ranch Houseat 532 W. Beauregard Ave. near Santa Fe Park, which became one of the most popular restaurants in the region.
Manitzas was known for greeting his customers with the phrase “Hi, Cousin,” and he had a famous neon sign in the restaurant, which depicted a cowboy riding a large-mouth bass and yelling “Hi! Cousin!”
According to storied Standard-Times sportswriter Blondie Cross, Manitzas was among the most formidable fisherman in West Texas.
For the duration of WWII, “Cousin Steve” served thousands of military personnel stationed in San Angelo, developing a reputation as the consummate host.
Manitzas sold his restaurant in October1956, but the location continued to be a popular spot for decades, operating as McEver’s Ranch House, Walt’s Ranch House, The Grubstake and Harlow’s before closing for good in 2001. The building was demolished in 2005.
According to an article by Rick Smith, one of the secret ingredients for that location’s popularity was head chef Romeo Perotti, who began working at the Ranch House in the early 1940s and stayed on at least through the mid '70s. Perotti died in 1989.
Another article by former S-T staffer Bill Modisett, writing for the Midland Reporter-Telegram in 2014, said Steve’s Ranch House gave rise to a similar restaurant in Midland in 1946.
According to the article, the JFS Ranch House, owned by A.A. “Poosty” Jones, L.M. Freels and Eddie Simms, got its start when Jones, a San Angelo native, felt there was a need for a steakhouse as good as “Steve’s” in Midland.
“I had been going to San Angelo and there was a Greek gentleman there that built Steve’s Ranch House,” Jones said. “And it was a very popular restaurant in West Texas. … My family would go to San Angelo and eat at the ranch house, and Midland did not have a fancy restaurant,” he noted.
According to the article, Jones got together with some friends,eventually sent an architect to San Angelo to scope out Manitzas’ restaurant, and bought a scrap of land for $500, with no water or sewer. The JBS Ranch House was very popular until it burned down in the mid-1950s.
Also noteworthy in San Angelo are the Dun-Bar East Restaurant and Twin Mountain Steakhouse.
Since opening in 1959, the Blaneks have kept diners at the Dun-Bar East happy with a menu that includes a wide variety of steaks, cooked to order.
The restaurant is open6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily at 1728 Pulliam St.
The famous Log Cabin Steak House,just outside of town on the Arden Road, was operated by the Blanek family until it burned down in 1974.
Twin Mountain Steakhouse, 6534 U.S. 67 S., has been open since 1962. It is famous for its “scraps,” and it’s a good idea to call for reservations.
Worth the drive is the Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap,ratedthe No. 3 steakhouse in Texas. It not only looks the part, but the food is also delicious. Get there before dark to take a picture with the giant armadillo.
